Beautiful butterfly

My dog, Chloe was barking like crazy the other day, so I got up to see what all of the commotion was about.  What I saw when I reached the door was such a beautiful black butterfly! And big too. He was so neat looking! He was black with blue areas on the bottom of his wings, then underneath, he was black with orange areas!! Of course my dog chased him all over the back yard, but he continued to come back and dine on our verbenas!! 

 

This was such a fun layout to work on! It seems as of late, all I do is create layouts for my grandson, so I miss using gemstones, flowers, etc.! So naturally, I used them a ton on this page! I used the EK large banner punch and butterfly punch here.  

Other supplies used were Maya Road chipboard flourishes, Prima tiles, Colorbox ink (black), October Afternoon spray paint (All Aboard), The Paper Studio (Spare Parts) Bright 3D flowers, Websters Pages calendar journaling cards, Basic Gray's Lucky Line (Karma), Basic Gray's 6 x 6 Kioshi paper pack, and Heidi Swapp Specialty cardstock (background).  

Birthday Mania

After getting away to my parents' lake house in Heber Springs, AR with several of my wonderful and creative friends for the weekend, I am feeling so rejuvenated and ready to create!! After finishing up my Christmas cards (wahoo) I began working on birthday cards... I just never ever seem to have enough of them when I need them! Especially for all of the men in my life! Here is one of the cards I created with a few color variations.

My new favorite stamp sets these days has to be the Birthday Blue prints from the Tim Holtz Collection and Stampers Anonymous.  There are so many uses for the stamps.... (I'm already thinking Christmas cards 2014 using the present stamp!!)

Once again my Copic markers came through for me! (They rarely let me down!!) For these cards, I used YR07, R27 and B69.  And I used Basic Grey's offbeat paper line for the backgrounds.

Have you discovered Glossy Accents yet?? Love this!! Once dried, it give your image an epoxy feel and look.  It just adds a bit of dimension to it as well.  You can even use it as adhesive, especially when you want that adhesive to be invisible... picture acetate, vellum, clear buttons, etc.  Sprinkle a bit of glitter on top, and voila.... instant bling!! And who doesn't love that?

An ink that is a must around herein Studio M is Memento dye ink.  I stamp with this on almost every project. It's quick drying of course, but I always get a very clear image when using this.  Actually it's recommended when using Copic markers, because it doesn't react to the alcohol used in the markers... so no bleeding!!